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Suicide
Edwin Pearce Christy, founder of popular American blackface minstrelsy group The Christy Minstrels commits suicide by throwing himself from a window of his house in New York City.
Popular Canadian songwriter, musician and recording artist John Stromberg commits suicide in Freeport, Long Island, New York, USA, by ingesting Paris Green insecticide. He had suffered severely from debilitating arthritis for several years. Composer and designer of string instruments Alfred Stelzner commits suicide at his home in Dresden, Germany, Europe. Although his inventions, the violotta and the cellone, were highly praised and endorsed by famous musicians, his company had gone brankrupt, leaving him faced with insurmountable financial problems.
Billie Holiday, with Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra, records Gloomy Sunday, Love Me Or Leave Me, I Cover The Waterfront and Jim for OKeh/Columbia Records in New York City, USA. Gloomy Sunday will require an extraordinary reputation as a song which causes people to commit suicide.
Frank Sinatra publicly denies a widespread rumour that he attempted suicide at Lake Tahoe with an overdose of sleeping pills after a fight with his wife, Ava Gardner.
Montana, USA, newspaper The Billings Gazette reports that a destructive epidemic of black stem rust, which damages wheat crops, has spread to most counties in North Dakota, USA. Bob Dylan was a young teenage boy, living in neighbouring Minnesota, when this ecological disaster took place. His song The Ballad Of Hollis Brown is about a [fictional] farmer who, driven to distraction by the loss of his livelihood to black stem rust, kills himself and all of his family.
Elvis Presley is recalled to Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, to re-shoot the ending of Wild In The Country, because pre-release screening audiences did not like the original ending in which Hope Lange committed suicide.
Elvis Presley is in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, re-shooting the ending of Wild In The Country, because pre-release screening audiences did not like the original ending in which Hope Lange committed suicide.
Elvis Presley is in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, re-shooting the ending of Wild In The Country, because pre-release screening audiences did not like the original ending in which Hope Lange committed suicide.
Apparently having suffered a nervous breakdown, the great American vocalist Paul Robeson attempts suicide in his hotel room in Moscow, Russia, Europe.Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at The ABC, Croydon, UK. The show is supposed to star The Everly Brothers, butDon Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London's Savoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.
Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at the ABC, Exeter, UK. The show is supposed to star The Everly Brothers, but Don Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London'sSavoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.
Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at The ABC, Plymouth, UK. The show is supposed to star TheEverly Brothers, but Don Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London's Savoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.
Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at The Apollo, Ardwick, Manchester, England, UK, Europe. The show is supposed to star The Everly Brothers, but Don Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London's Savoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.
The Case Of The Lover's Leap, an episode of the tv detective series Perry Mason, airs for the first time in the USA. The show centres on a murderer who fakes his own suicide in order to escape justice and, years later, it will inspire Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy to write the song Suicide.
Don Drummond, saxophonist with influential ska/reggae band The Skatalites, dies in Bellevue Hospital, Jamaica, Caribbean, aged 37. He had been committed to the hospital as insane, and his death (controversially) will be listed as a suicide.Diane Linkletter commits suicide by jumping out of her tenth-story apartment window in Shoreham Towers, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. Her father, tv personality Art Linkletter, blames Diane's death on a bad LSD trip and begins a high-profile campaign against the drug and its users, publicly blaming acid guru Dr. Timothy Leary. A toxicology test conducted by the Los Angeles Coroner's Office will subsequently determine that Linkletter had no drugs in her system on the day she jumped, and that she died from "multiple traumatic injuries". Her death will inspire Bobby Darin to write and record the song Baby May.
Ben Pollack, the jazz bandleader known as 'The Father Of Swing', commits suicide by hanging himself in Palm Springs, California, USA.
Pioneering British r'n'b bandleader Graham Bond dies aged 36 under the wheels of a Piccadilly line train at Finsbury Park station, London, England, UK, Europe. Most sources list Bond's death as a suicide.
Malinda Gayle McCready is born in Fort Myers, Florida, USA. She will find success as country singer Mindy McCready but, after a toubled life, she will commit suicide in 2013.
Phyllis Major, the wife of Jackson Browne, commits suicide with an overdose of barbiturates in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. At least two of Browne's subsequent songs, Sleep's Dark And Silent Gate and The Shape Of A Heart, will be inspired by Major. Also, an earlier song, Ready Or Not, was written about how Browne and Major first got together after meeting in The Troubadour club in Los Angeles.
US country music star Mel Street takes his own life on the morning of his 43rd birthday. On the same day, The Clash sack their manager Bernie Rhodes, claiming he has 'mismanaged' their finances. He is replaced by former Melody Maker journalist Caroline Coon.
Joy Division have a gig at Derby Hall, Bury, UK, but their singer, Ian Curtis, is in hospital, having attempted suicide the night before.
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In Reno, Nevada, USA, after listening to the Judas Priest album Stained Class, heavy metal fans Raymond Belknap and Jay Vance attempt suicide with a sawn-off shotgun. Belknap dies instantly. Vance survives but is horribly disfigured.
Tommy Kiefer guitarist and founder-member of Swiss metal band Krokus commits suicide by hanging himself on Christmas Eve. Kiefer was a long-term heroin addict.A California appeals court upholds the decision to dismiss the lawsuit brought against Ozzy Osbourne by the parents of Jack McCollum, a young man who had killed himself while listening to Ozzy's song Suicide Solution.
Phenomenally successful Japanese rock guitarist Hideto Matsumoto hangs himself in Tokyo, aged 33. 25,000 fans will attend his funeral, and three will commit suicide within days, believing life to be unbearable without him. He was best known under his stage name of Hide, as lead guitarist for X Japan. 
Black Metal band Mayhem play in Sarpsborg, Norway, Europe. The show is recorded and will be released as the bootleg LP Dawn Of The Black Hearts, whose cover shows the band's vocalist, Dead (real name Per Yngve Ohlin), after his suicide.The trial of Judas Priest begins at Washoe County Courthouse, Reno, Nevada, USA. The charges against the band claim that subliminal messages hidden in their album Stained Class contributed to the deaths of two young men. Ray Belknap, killed himself with a shotgun on 23 December 1985, and his friend Jay Vance was badly disfigured in the same incident.
Per 'Dead' Ohlin, Swedish vocalist of black/death metal bands Mayhem and Morbid, finally lives up to his nickname by slitting his wrists and throat with a knife and then shoooting himself in the forehead with a shotgun, at home in Krakstad, Norawy, Europe. He leaves a brief suicide note, which apologizes for firing a gun indoors and begins, "Excuse the blood"...
Seriously alcoholic Doug Hopkins, guitarist and songwriter of The Gin Blossoms, checks himself out of the detox unit at St. Luke's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The following day he will commit suicide.
Derrick Hand, State Coroner of New South Wales, Australia, 
Guitarist Hideto Matsumoto [aka Hide] of the group X Japan is found dead, hanging from a towel tied to a doorknob in his apartment in Tokyo, Japan, Asia. His death will be recorded by the authorities as suicide. Within days three fans will die in copycat suicides, and 50,000 people will attended his funeral at Tsukiji Hongan-ji.
Fans, estimated at around 50,000 in number, flood into central Tokyo, Japan, to attend the funeral of Hideto Matsumoto [aka Hide], guitarist of the group X Japan. The centre of the city is brought to a standstill as ambulances carry away dozens overcome by emotion and the 82-degree [28c] heat.
The Six Parts Seven and The Black Keys release a joint EP, The Six Parts Seven/The Black Keys, on Suicide S queeze records in the USA.James Lawrence of Hope Of The States hangs himself at Real World Studios, owned by Peter Gabriel, in Box, Wiltshire, England, UK, Europe. The group had been recording its debut album.
Jeanette Sliwinski, suicidally-inclined driver of a vehicle which deliberately crashed into another car in Chicago, Illinois, USA, four days earlier, is charged with first degree murder. Members of the bands Silkworm, The Returnables and Exo And The Dials all died in the collision.
Arctic Monkeys release their third single, Leave Before The Lights Come On, on Domino Records in the UK.
British tabloid newspaper The Sun publishes an article entitled "Suicide of Hannah, the Secret Emo", which reports the death of thirteen-year-old British girl named Hannah Bond, who had hanged herself supposedly because of her involvement with a "self-harming 'emo' cult", which the newspaper directly associates with My Chemical Romance.Lover's rock vocalist Jean Adebambo is found dead, aged 46, in London, UK. She had found success during the 1980s in the lover's rock style of reggae music with hits including Reaching For A Goal, Hardships of Life and Pipe Dreams, and was about to re-start her career when she dies. [It is later concluded that she committed suicide.]
Los Angeles Assistant Chief of Coroners, Ed Winter, rules that Paula Goodspeed, an alleged stalker whose body was found in her car outside American Idol judge Paula Abdul's estate in Sherman Oaks, committed suicide. Mark Linkous, singer/songwriter best known for his work under the name Sparklehorse, commits suicide by shooting himself in the heart outside a friend's home in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
Charles Haddon, 22 year old lead singer of pop band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool jumps to his death from a telecommunications mast behind the main stage onto a parking area after playing at the Pukkelpop music festival in Belgium, Europe. Local police treat the death as suicide.
Ken Schoppmeyer an acclaimed blues harmonica player who led the King Biscuit Blues band for over ten years, commits suicide in a hotel room in Oceanside, San Diego, California, USA, aged 60.
Keith Emerson, keyboardist with The Nice and Emerson, Lake And Palmer, is found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Santa Monica, California, USA. He suffered for many years with a painful nerve condition, and was thought to have become depressed.
Kim Jong-hyun, vocalist with popular boyband Shinee, dies in a rented apartment in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam District in southeastern Seoul, South Korea, Asia. He had been very depressed and, according to close friends, suicidal. Police rule his death a "possible suicide".Professor Green releases a new single, Photographs, in connection with which he requests that his fans should send him photographs of friends and relatives who have died. The song deals with the suicide of Green's father, and how Green wishes he had taken more photographs of his father before he died.
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